Sunday, August 29, 2010

Matt Kuchar hit a ridiculous approach shot to two feet on the first playoff hole at The Barclays to win over Martin Laird.

Laird, who appeared to have the tournament in hand, needed to two putt from thirty feet on the 18th hole in regulation for the win. Unfortunately for him, he crushed his first putt a good eight feet past the hole and then missed coming back for a three putt.

With his first victory of the year at the first playoff event of the Fed Ex Cup, Kuchar takes the overall point lead in the quest for the $10,000,000.00 prize.

"Even if I had shut it down without a win, I would have felt it was a great year," Kuchar said. "To win, it's an incredible year."

He shot 65 the opening round and 67 in the final round at the Barclays. Other than one horrendous swing to open round three which led to triple bogey, a missed one foot putt, and one bad nine hole stretch, he played some great golf.

As his new swing starts to kick in, he appears to have much greater control with both his tee shots and his approach shots. It seems to be just a matter of time before he's able to put it all together over four rounds.

With his play at The Barclays, Woods jumped from 112th up to 65th in the point standings. Three events remain in the Fed Ex Cup Playoffs and Woods has won on all three courses in the past. One win will put him right back into contention and it could come this week at round two of the playoffs.

"I haven't won all year," Woods said. "But this is a week that I was very close. I felt that if I would have putted better for all four days, I would have been right there. Looking forward to next week."

Asked whether he thinks he can still break Nicklaus's record of 18 majors, he responded, "Absolutely."

"I look at it this way," Woods said, "Hogan won all nine of his majors at my age and older. I think for every kid out there, the goal is to get there. That is the benchmark in our sport, and that's still my goal."

Woods needs to finish approximately in the top 50 this week to advance to the second round of the playoffs. He's off to a good start and certainly thinks he can still win the whole thing.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

For the second consecutive year, there were three first time major winners. With so many good young players coming up, this may become a trend unless Tiger can get things together again.

In 2009, Angel Cabrera won his second career major at the Masters. After that there were all first timers with Lucas Glover taking the U.S. Open, Stewart Cink taking the British, and Y.E. Yang winning the PGA.

In 2010, Phil Mickelson won his fourth overall major at the Masters. From there, more first timers with Graeme McDowell winning the U.S. Open, Louis Oosthuizen taking the British, and Martin Kaymer winning the PGA.

Friday, August 13, 2010

Tiger was all over the place through six holes during round two. He made some great up and downs and is fortunate to be even on the day. Hopefully he will consider hitting a few fairways and greens which would make things much easier.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Tiger could have a new coach. He had Sean Foley video his swing Tuesday and both acknowledged a future pairing is possible.

"The possibility is there. I'm just taking a look at him. The advice I would give any player is to have at least two people look at your swing," said Foley.

"Certainly it's a possibility, no doubt. But there's also a lot of other coaches out there that's a possibility, as well, that I've talked to," Woods said. "I wanted to have him take a look at it today on video so I can take a look at it, and that's what we did."

Foley works with Sean O'Hair, Hunter Mahan, and Justin Rose, and each of these players has had a lot of recent success. He also works with Stephen Ames, but the only thing Tiger might say about that is "9 and 8".

Phil Mickelson acknowledged Tuesday that he woke up 5 days before the U.S. Open and couldn't walk. He has since been diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis, taken medication, and the symptoms have gone away.

"I'm surprised at how quickly it's gone away, and how quickly it's been able to be managed and controlled," he said. "I feel 100 percent, like I say. But when I'm laying there on the couch and I can't move, you know, yeah, I had some concerns. But I feel a lot better now."

Also, after reading a book, he decided to become a vegetarian which I'm sure will bring up many future jokes.